ha ha! I was much faster this time around! Unfortunately I have a busy next couple of weeks coming up but I will try to at least outline more so that I will have everything in line much faster for the story.

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Chapter 7

What was everyone else doing last night?

Angel glanced over at Faith as she took out the fifth vampire of the night. As she came down from her spin kick, she slipped on a patch of wet grass and fell on her butt. As Angel went over to stake the vampire that was leaning into Faith, it suddenly disappeared into a cloud of dust.

"Hey short stuff." Faith greeted Kennedy with a smile. The other slayer's face was stoic. Faith sighed. "Thanks for the save." Kennedy nodded and glanced over at Angel whom had stopped walking towards them as Kennedy's gaze turned towards him.

"Hi." Angel greeted her as though talking to an animal that could attack at any moment. It was a good strategy. Kennedy inclined her head slightly at Angel without taking her eyes off of him. Angel sighed. "I think I'll head back to the mansion Faith. You ok to do the rest of patrol yourself."

"Yeah sure. It's five by five." Faith said and Angel gave her a half smile before turning and going back to Crawford Street, his coat billowing out behind him. Faith frowned as Angel left and turned to the ever stoic Kennedy.

"What is your problem?" Faith demanded once she was sure that Angel wouldn't be able to hear them.

"What do you mean?" Kennedy asked, now relaxed that there were no vampires around.

"What do I mean? I mean why are you so rude to Angel. And Buffy and Spike for that matter!" Faith demanded.

"They are the enemy." She said stiffly.

"No. They're really not. I've been here for almost a year now and I can't even count the number of times Buffy saved my life. And Spike and Angel too."

"NO. They are all killers. Evil monsters who should be dead, but manage to cheat death by feeding off the life of others."

"Sure that's true for all the others, but Angel and Spike and Buffy, they don't kill. They don't hunt. Actually, they kill a lot of vampires themselves. Besides, with them around, we'll live a lot longer." Faith smirked at Kennedy and turned to head back on patrol.

"What's the point of living longer if all we get is more fighting?" Kennedy mumbled, but Faith heard her and turned back around, her plans for the evening suddenly changing.

"Oh there's a point." Faith grinned at the confused look on the younger girl's face. "A wicked awesome point." She walked back over to Kennedy and took her by the arm. It was time this little slayer had her first trip to the Bronze.

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"So I told my dad, that it didn't matter where I went to school as long as it wasn't in Sunnydale." Cordelia told Xander as they sat at a quiet Italian Bistro in Sunnydale that had just opened.

"I don't know why you're so against staying in Sunnydale, Cordy." Xander said innocently taking a bite of his pasta.

"Well, duh! I mean why would I want to stay here? For the total lack of good shopping and rich people? Or maybe I should stay for the vampire and the chance to be eaten!" Cordelia paused and looked at Xander seriously. "I want to do more with my life than stay in the same one-Starbucks town where I grew up. I mean who would want to stay here?"

"I want to stay here." Xander admitted quietly.

"You're kidding!"

"No. I'm really not. I mean I don't think that I'll be able to get into college with my stellar academic record and low, low SAT scores."

"Well you can still move away." Cordelia protested. "Just get a job somewhere away from this hellhole."

"It's not that simple." Xander ran his hand through his hair. "I want to stay here. Help save the world. I mean, no job in the world is going to be more worthwhile than that."

"Are you crazy?" Cordelia put her fork down slowly and stared at Xander as though she had never seen him before, then she snorted. "It all comes down to Buffy doesn't it?" She asked snidely.

"What are you talking about Cordy? What all comes down to Buffy?" Xander was confused by her sudden attitude change, although, he felt that he should have been more used to this after all this time.

"That you're still totally in love with Buffy!" Cordelia yelled. Other patrons in the restaurant turned to look at the young couple in the corner and Cordelia lowered her voice. "All the time you've been dating me. You've been thinking about her, haven't you?" She demanded.

"Of course not! Where do you get these crackpot ideas anyway?" Xander exclaimed. He rubbed his eyes with his hands and then looked at her. "It's not the same anymore. I care about Buffy, of course. She and Willow are my best friends. But that has nothing to do with how I feel about you!"

"That's because Spike's in the picture now. He and Buffy are as good as married so you know that you have absolutely NO chance with her, not that you ever did." Cordelia huffed at him.

"You're wrong! I admit that I did have a crush on Buffy for a while, but now I know that it was a crush. I am not hung up on Buffy, Cordy!"

"Yes. You really are Xander Harris. I can't believe that I-"

"I love you!" Xander blurted out interrupting Cordelia's rant before it could really get started. They sat in silence and the waiter brought them their check.

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Now back to our heroes!

Buffy looked at her father's body, manacled to a chair with his blood seeping into the concrete. She started to cry. Willow's hand covered her mouth as she fought the urge to vomit up the muffin she had eaten earlier. Spike abruptly turned Willow around and gave her a light push toward the stairs and wrapped his arms around Buffy, turning her away from the corpse.

As they reached the upstairs, Buffy was being completely supported by Spike and Willow was trying to help console her friend, but didn't know what to say or do. Buffy's sobs soon woke up the other occupants in the house and Giles and Joyce rushed down the stairs still wearing their bedclothes.

"What is it? Buffy, what's wrong!" Joyce asked taking in the sight of Buffy crying hysterically on Spike's lap while Willow tried to pat her back. Willow looked up at the couple and blushed slightly at seeing them so informally, but managed to push back her embarrassment in light of the situation.

"Spike smelled blood and so we went to the basement, and…well…Mr. Summers is dead." Willow finished quietly.

"What?" Joyce said and slumped down in the armchair. Hank had been very much alive when she and Giles had gone up to bed last night. She looked at Giles a little apprehensively, but he looked to be in deep thought. She breathed a little sigh of relief as Giles reached down and gave her shoulder a squeeze.

"I'll be right back." Giles said and went to the basement to examine the crime scene. Giles frowned at the sight of Hank's dead body in the center of the basement. He hadn't heard anyone yell out in the night and since neither vampire had either he assumed that it was someone Hank knew and trusted. And that it had been quick enough so that a look of surprise would be permanently etched on his face.

Giles went over to the body and saw that it was obviously a knife wound to the throat that had killed Hank Summers. And hence the excessive amount of blood. Giles bent down a little and saw that there were little patches of blood leading away from the body. He assumed that the killer hadn't quite anticipated that much blood and had gotten too close to his victim, resulting bloody footprints and his first clue.

Following the trail to the window, Giles frowned as he noticed that the window into the basement was slightly ajar. So that was how the murderer had entered. He opened the window to see how large a person could enter through it and a piece of fabric fell to the floor. He closed the window and bent to pick it up. Although the design was incomplete, Giles knew instantly what was embroidered on this kerchief. It was part of the Council of Watcher's seal. Chamers! Carefully tucking it into his pajama pocket, Giles returned to the others to help console both Buffy and Joyce.

"What is it Giles?" Willow asked noticing the pensive look on the Watcher's face.

"Hmm? Oh. Well I don't know if now is the best time, but I have a theory as to the perpetrator of this crime." Buffy's tears slowed and finally stopped as Giles' words seeped into her grief clogged brain.

"Who?" She rasped in a voice harsh from crying. Spike rubbed her back in an effort to calm her.

"I believe that it was Chamers." Giles said and sat on the arm of Joyce's chair, allowing her to rest her arm on his leg and gather strength from his presence. Giles reached into his pocket and pulled out the kerchief fragment. "I found this in the window catch after I followed what I assumed were the murderer's prints to the window. It must have been his entry point."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go get him!" Buffy said and jumped off of Spike's lap and moved to exit the house, even though she was dressed in her pajamas and it was still day.

"Hold on, pet." She turned to glare at her mate who growled at her in return. "It's still bloody daylight out now." Her gaze softened and she looked sadly at Spike. He reached out to cup her face and her eyes closed enjoying the comfort that he so easily gave. "We gotta be smart, ducks. We'll find out where the bastard is and then we'll kill him." Spike said with an evil gleam in his eyes.

"Good." Buffy said and her eyes opened to look at Spike. She was a little more feral than even a few moments ago with the prospect of a hunt in front of her. The three humans looked decidedly uncomfortable with this seemingly calm discussion of murder. The doorbell rang and Giles heaved a sigh of relief, which was shortly lived when he saw who was at the door.

"Bloody hell." Giles muttered and gestured their guest inside. He looked sheepishly at all the beings that were gathered in the living room that had turned to stare at him.

"Uh, hi Wesley." Willow said before the silence could stretch out any longer.

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Kennedy walked in the apartment that she and Andrea shared late in the afternoon. She was tired and felt like she could sleep for a month. But it was totally worth everything. She smiled.

"Where in the devil were you!" Andrea exclaimed as Kennedy walked in the door. Andrea had not had a fun night like Kennedy had. The watcher had been up pacing since three in morning. That was usually when her slayer would return from patrol and now, some twelve hours later she came staggering in with a smile on…smile?! "Are you smiling?" Andrea asked incredulously.

Kennedy merely shrugged and wandered into her room with a harried Andrea following behind. The slayer shrugged off her jacket and collapsed on her bed while Andrea watched her from the doorway.

"Did you run into trouble last night?" Andrea asked. Kennedy grunted and closed her eyes, blissfully close to sleep. Andrea sighed and cleaned her glasses. She turned around and walked back to the main room figuring that she can always badger Kennedy later about all this. She was actually pretty glad that the girl was showing some personality and a desire to live. The phone rang interrupting her thought process.

"Hello…yes…I'll be right there…ok…I'll bring her as well then…yes, see you soon." Andrea hung up the phone and went back to Kennedy's room and began to shake her awake. "Wake-up! That was Mr. Giles on the phone. Apparently there is something of an emergency and we must really get going." Kennedy groaned and rolled out of bed.

"Fine, fine, I'm up. But we have to stop by Faith's on the way. There is no way that I am going to be up and she gets to sleep." Andrea's mouth merely opened and closed like a fish at Kennedy's sudden assertiveness.

"Alright." She replied once she was able to handle human speech. "We'll stop on the way." She felt a smile twitch at the corners of her mouth. Sunnydale seemed to be agreeing with the girl after all. "Let's go." Andrea grabbed her keys and they left for the Summers' residence. Andrea briefly wondered if it would be better if they all just bought houses on Revello drive to cut back on travel time while they were saving the world.

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